Garfield Elementary School in Marinette on August 20, 2019. PC: Fox 11 Online
MARINETTE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Marinette’s school board has decided to lift restrictions that would have prevented one of its old buildings from being used as a school again.
It comes after there was a full-price offer early last year that would have resulted in the building becoming a private school.
Garfield Elementary has sat empty for three years. It closed because of right-sizing efforts.
“Hopefully Saint Thomas Aquinas still wants it, I don’t know if they do or not,” said Brent Johnson, who lives near the school.
In early 2024, the top trustee of Saint Thomas Aquinas Academy put in a full cash offer of just under $300,000. The plan was to put the private school’s elementary students in the building to be six blocks away from the middle and high school, instead of 15 to 20 minutes away in Peshtigo.
“This wasn’t just about Marinette School District versus Saint Thomas Aquinas,” said Marinette School District Superintendent Corry Lambie.
Lambie has maintained the deed restriction was about financial concerns. If enough students left through the state voucher program, the district funding loss could erase the revenue gained from selling Garfield, according to Lambie.
“I think what happens when you’re looking at the impact of the voucher program and how it impacts public schools, those are tough decisions for a school board to make,” said Lambie.
The board voted 5 to 4 to lift the sale restriction. Three of the votes coming from new board members elected in April.
“I just hope they keep being forthright with the citizens,” said Johnson.
Neighbors hope to see something positive happen, especially considering the building has dealt with vandalism and flooding since sitting empty. The district says it has been taking care of issues as needed.
The district had accepted an offer $35,000 below its asking price last summer from a California developer.
However, the deal fell apart.
Lambie says the district is trying to recover $55,000 in earnest money put forth in the deal.
Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty had threatened legal action last summer over the district’s deed restriction. The law firm released the following statement about the restriction being lifted:
There never should have been a deed restriction in the first place. As a reminder, over the last two years, multiple offers to buy this vacant school building have been rejected by the school district, including one full price offer. It’s unfortunate that this entire episode had to occur. The biggest losers in this whole ordeal are the parents and taxpayers of Marinette.
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